6.28.2007

I love these serving platers posted on Style Files---> FTF Design Studio is the furniture line of Roseann Repetti and her husband, architect West Chin. These serving trays are part of their now public home collection. The line quality and the proportions of the platters help display the food in a very clean and austere manner. The Parmesan cheese and rosemary duo have never looked so deliciously elegant and humbly understated at the same time...

6.25.2007

Filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal and the renowned photographer, Edward Burtynsky, present Manufactured Landscapes. Like the film, Baraka, Manufactured Landscapes presents Burtynsky's large-scale images of industrial (manufactured) landscapes in a repetitive form to initiate a rather uncanny dialogue with humanity and our impact on the environment.I haven't seen the film, but I plan on going soon...I've always been shock & awed by Burtynsky's photography....sometimes his monotonous images of tower blocks remind me of Jean-Luc Godard's "2 or 3 Things I Know About Her". There is this famous scene where the camera pans, literally engulfs and suffocates 360 degrees around the female protagonist, Juliette, as she stands in her housing project corridor. It's just such a provocative demonstration (a shocking visual narrative) of how confined Juliette is in her 1960's tower block outside Paris. The tragedy and violence of modernist housing projects may be broken record criticism, but then I think of riots occurring in Paris these days, in the same sort of suburb-banlieue, and I wonder what change has been made...

6.24.2007

Click above to see greater details...in particular, the fantastic writer's desk on the bottom right corner. The set designers must have had so much fun putting together this period story.

Vogue photographer, Arthur Elgort's portraits of the actress, KeiraKnightley in Kenya was in many ways an explicit homage to one of my favorite films, Out of Africa. I've always loved the confluence of buttoned-up Victorian fashion with loose safari wear (over the days paired down for practicality). I can't imagine what it was like for women to arrive in the hot African landscape in corsets and ruffle dresses, only to realize that they would have to make great feminist strides for shear necessity (trimming their skirts, allowing their knees to show and parting with their pressed white blouses).

Colonialism is not something one should ever romanticize. Somehow, in film and photography people have made aspects of Victorian culture in Africa, visually provocative.....quite possibly, due to great juxtaposition of equally unique and fascinating lifestyles.

One doesn't have to travel to Africa to experience the great outdoors, the NYtimes magazine has referenced Mary Jane's Bed & Breakfast farm retreat in Idaho as a great place to travel back in time, sleep in a canvas tent, cook on an outdoor stove, and open your tent to this:

I loved how Spray Glue intercepted this "Colour" explosion by Amsterdam's Scholten & Baijings. (see more examples, here)...It reminds me of all of my rough attempts to incorporate my old Mexican blanket with each and every space I've lived in over the years. I love how these merino wool and cotton blankets (with their absorbing day-glow palettes) just drape so minimally and comfortably over existing chairs and sofas---it's just how it should be.

6.22.2007

I just stumbled upon this furniture showroom in Manhattan as I was walking home on Crosby St. the other day. At BDDW, I so impressed by all the texture and attention to wood quality that I went home to research the designers. It was great to hear that the 2 designers (Tyler Hays + Joshua Vogel) are locals and make these "domestic " wood pieces in nearby Wiliamsburg, Brooklyn. I give 2 thumbs up to Hays + Vogel for Being Local and paying such great attention to craftsmenship

My thoughts = I just find this structure incredibly beautiful and innovative without thinking too much or adding unnecessary embellishments. I especially love how the wood container is designed to narrowly fit within the structure, yet still not touch the original stone walls. How graceful...and quite angelic.

Yesterday, I went to a very bizarre lecture on "An Intimate History of the Swimming Pool". The Swiss Institute in New York hosted a discussion with Thomas A.P. van Leeuwen on the cultural significance of the swimming pool. The author of “The Springboard in the Pond: An Intimate History of the Swimming Pool,” van Leeuwen outlined a compelling history of the swimming pool as a cultural artifact, investigating both the societal and architectural ramifications of man's relationship to water. So random...my friend and I had to go!

Here are 1 - 4 things I pulled from the lecture:

Babies in their first months outside the womb, are supposedly uninhibited when it comes to swimming. (eg: they could swim in water and hold their breath)

The rectangular pool has a military origin....the first people to formally learn how to swim were in the military. We saw pictures of the scary contraptions and devices the military used to train the men who were fearful of swimming.

"L'Amérique Moderne (1911)": French author, Jules Huret, observed how Americans used sports, in particular, swimming as a form of socializing....inconspicuous leisure.

The extravagant pools, or "Grotto's" of early 20th century millionaires were architecturally designed to take one the fantastical symbolism of the womb (pink lights, underworld-like sculptures and lounging women) *Think Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion meets Rem Koolhaas architecture

A fantastic piece of McCobb furniture was intercepted by Poppy Talk. Supposedly, it's a modular set and the owner arranged three pieces together to make this entire chest. The photo is originally from watersedgechris'sflicker album. I just love the overall proportions of the chest (it's distance from the floor + a great odd number of 3 drawers).

6.19.2007

This is a composite of my favorite Sartorialist moments. I love it when the Sartorialist captures men and women in high draped pants, blouses, great brown shoes and of course a scarf to tie it all off. I'm not a fashion novice, so I don't have a well-versed fashion vocabulary for instances like this, but all I know is that I really their style. Subdued browns, blues, creams and peter pan collared blouses resonate the modest, yet elegant 30's/40's post-war look (note: Katherine Hepburn + Samuel Beckett in Paris, as well as Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face). Chloé had a great Spring 07 runway featuring looks like these above.

One more light from Reference library...an old gas light...I love its clean white metal shell and its wash bowl like proportions. It's very modern and austere, yet at the same time you see how it can be beautifully hung from an ornate ceiling molding. This industrial light fixture is so adaptable and timeless that it can easily blend into any interior style...and still hold its own.

6.18.2007

Check out the Reference Library blog---it has the most amazing postings on mid-century furniture, products, interiors and all sorts of industrial goods. I especially love these neon fan lights...I could imagine them in use at a Bauhaus-type architecture school. Thank you, Reference Library.

6.15.2007

Even 22-year-olds have a lot to worry about. Although we may be able to pickup and go where ever our heart desires, sometimes its very hard and tiresome to spend ones life between so many places---especially, so many places that one enjoys and ultimately grows accustomed to. In the last 4 years, I've hopped from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, then to NYC, half a year in Paris, back to NYC....and lately, intermittent returns to San Francisco (my hometown). I live to pack and unpack my suitcase and without a clue as to where I'll be in the next few months (and where I can singly house all my books)! I've been so fortunate to have had the travel opportunities as I've had, because I've loved every new place I've lived in. Santa Cruz for its redwoods, San Francisco for its hippies, Paris for its classicism, and New York for its It 24hr energy.....It always makes leaving hard, and going exicitng.

I depart this afternoon to return (home?) to New York City, I wonder if I'm more of San Franciscan than a New Yorker. A month ago, I would have said that I'm more of a New Yorker. So, the million dollar question is, where should I settle and find my dream job?---in the city that lovingly calls me back (SF) or in city that gruffly challenges me to venture forward (NYC)?je ne sais pas.

6.14.2007

I know that the Domino magazine spread of stylist/photographer Anita Calero's home has already been posted by my fellow design bloggers (knitsquirrel), however, I love it so much that I had to post it myself. I love the Hawaiian tropical tone of rich dark woods, pine floors, walnut & sea grass woven chairs and the amazing drawings on the left. It reminds me of some of the things I have seen at flea markets around me and at my favorite vintage furniture store in San Francisco "Past Perfect"